Up until yesterday I had been transcoding all my .mts files before working with them.

For whatever reason I double clicked on one yesterday and "Toast Video Player 2.0" (which I didn't even know I had) opened and started playing the clip.

It is really handy to go through a list of files and be able to quickly preview them. Often many will go straight to the trash, saving on the transcoding time.

Another use for this - I have a screen capture utility called Snapz Pro which allows one to capture a video clip from the screen. It can then save this clip in most any quicktime format.

So I would play the file with Toast Video Player, set the size on the screen to what I wanted, capture it while playing and then save it as a web size video. Sounds like a bother, but once all the windows are set up it is really just a few clicks.

I was pulled away but I'm pretty sure I can use Apple's Automator to do this automatically.

Maybe not for everyone, but for me being able to quickly preview a card of clips will be a big timesaver.

As well, when shooting videos of the kids or family everyone wants to see them. This is a quick and dirty way to get the clips out. But I've still got the .mts files if there is something in the mess that is worth properly processing / editing / etc.

Martti Ekstrand

09-05-2009, 08:46 AM

I've been yapping about Toast Video Player like forever - so long that people has started to mock me for it. It's hidden within the Toast app package, right click on Toast and "Show contents" and you can find it, make a alias and stick it on the dock. It handles a bunch of codecs and mostly has a better looking playback than VLC. Nice trick with Snapz Pro but isn't just easier chucking the clip into Toast itself and let it transcode to a web video?

ustein

09-05-2009, 09:01 AM

Thanks to Martti I also now know that Toast 10 is nice for previewing the MTS clips. But normally I convert the 1080p footage with Neoscene to 1080p 24fps.

I then use Adobe Bridge CS4 to browse the clips. While Neoscene converts I can start to check out the first clips. I then do a very basic rough cutting of the clips in Quicktime Pro and remove converted clips that have no value to me. This way I reduce the size for my project clips. The original MTS file stay untouched.

Cranky

09-05-2009, 11:22 AM

Windows 7 has built-in AVCHD support.

SteveF

09-05-2009, 08:03 PM

I've been yapping about Toast Video Player like forever - so long that people has started to mock me for it. It's hidden within the Toast app package, right click on Toast and "Show contents" and you can find it, make a alias and stick it on the dock. It handles a bunch of codecs and mostly has a better looking playback than VLC. Nice trick with Snapz Pro but isn't just easier chucking the clip into Toast itself and let it transcode to a web video?

Good idea with Toast and the web video. I'll have to try that.

I didn't know that you'd mentioned this before - my bad.

Before posting this I tried several times to do a search of the forums to see if Toast Video Player had been discussed, but the search function always locked up.

petersr

09-05-2009, 09:47 PM

Windows 7 has built-in AVCHD support.
Windows Media Player v11 (in any version of Windows, I assume, though I'm using Vista) also supports MTS AVCHD playback, but only 720p. As you say, very useful for quick preview of MTS files. Windows does not know about the MTS extension, however, so you have to tell it the first time to open MTS files in Media Player; after that it is fine (but only 720p). It will be great if Win7 supports FHD.

Martti Ekstrand

09-06-2009, 12:00 AM

I didn't know that you'd mentioned this before - my bad.

Don't apologize, I'm happy that finally somebody seconded me :)

danny dale

09-06-2009, 03:44 PM

...It's hidden within the Toast app package, right click on Toast and "Show contents" and you can find it, make a alias and stick it on the dock. It handles a bunch of codecs and mostly has a better looking playback than VLC.

nice find... I didn't know that app existed - great tip.

nichhit25

09-07-2009, 02:02 AM

Windows Media Player v11 (in any version of Windows, I assume, though I'm using Vista) also supports MTS AVCHD playback, but only 720p. As you say, very useful for quick preview of MTS files. Windows does not know about the MTS extension, however, so you have to tell it the first time to open MTS files in Media Player; after that it is fine (but only 720p). It will be great if Win7 supports FHD.

Windows media player seems not powerful, and nmost mts files i have are in resolution over 720, so before working with these files, i ofteh use MTS/M2TS Converter (http://www.pavtube.com/mts-converter/) to convert them to other formats, seems a little troublesome, but fortunately it works well for me, and never lets the audio and video of my footage be out of sync. Hope AVCHD can get support from more and more programs.

commanderspike

09-10-2009, 04:23 AM

I've had a long standing issue with VLC Player (latest release version) on my Macbook Pro.

It doesn't playback 24p MTS AVCHD files from the GH1 properly, and 720p is better but still not perfect. 24p full HD files go grey and stutter, corrupt completely after just 1 second. Does anyone else have this issue with VLC on a Mac or does it work 100% fine?

logiquem

11-30-2009, 08:52 PM

I use a small Duo core 2 Dell laptop with Windows 7 /wM11 and it plays 1080 24P 720 60P GH1 files perfectly. A beautifull surprise for me.